


This is the way

by CertifiedPissWizard



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Melida/Daan, Qui-Gon Bashing, Recovery from trauma, along with val entire mandalorian enclave, and like yeah melida/daan got retconned but still, armorer: this is my son he is baby, couldnt figure out how to write the armorer adopts obiwan so i made an armorer do it, every mandalorian in a three mile radius: this is the way, i dont care if its years later or any of that bull, it mildly touches on my headcanons about mandoa dialects, like. sir. a child gets left in a war zone and later gets sent to one, minor jedi bashing, oh yeah, that has to be retraumatizing, that i honestly need to refine, which may be the author projecting a little
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:29:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26482699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CertifiedPissWizard/pseuds/CertifiedPissWizard
Summary: Honestly, he couldn’t help but think it was a good thing when they wandered into the enclave of traditionalist Mandalorians. Some of them knew what he and Satine were saying, and they offered a place for Obi-Wan and Satine to stay until his guardian said it was safe for them to return. They would be protected from Death Watch, they’d have access to regular food, they’d have access to regular shelter
Comments: 20
Kudos: 676
Collections: Punch Qui-Gon and Adopt Obi-Wan, all my homies hate qui-gon





	This is the way

One of the biggest issues that Obi-Wan and Satine had to deal with was the sheer number of dialects. They would go into a town to sneak away from Death Watch, and they couldn’t understand anything that was being said because the dialect of Mando’a[1] the New Mandalorians created had almost nothing in common with every other dialect. It pissed Satine off, because New Mandalorian Mando’a was the official Mando’a taught in schools, and they shouldn’t get weird looks for speaking it. Obi-Wan wasn’t really annoyed by that. He was annoyed by the fact that they stood out so much, and he was annoyed by the fact that communication was challenging. Honestly, he couldn’t help but think it was a good thing when they wandered into the enclave of traditionalist Mandalorians. Some of them knew what he and Satine were saying, and they offered a place for Obi-Wan and Satine to stay until his guardian said it was safe for them to return. They would be protected from Death Watch, they’d have access to regular food, they’d have access to regular shelter. The only annoying thing was being forced to take classes, and that’s because there was some level of novelty to it given as how Obi-Wan and Master Qui-Gon’s schedule didn’t leave them in the temple enough for Obi-Wan to really take classes anymore. It was hard to tell, but he was pretty sure when he said that when pressed on the subject that he’d upset the Mandalorian he said it to.

It was strange- there was a different style of learning and caring for children than he was used to. After a certain age, Jedi education became the sole responsibility of their masters, as did any sort of parental affection. Here- Satine and he were circled through various guardians who helped them with their homework and made sure they ate and that they were doing alright and- It was strange. It was nice- but it was strange. The form of Mando’a they spoke was strange, too. It flowed off his tongue infinitely easier than the New Mandalorian’s dialect, though, filled with all the words borrowed from basic and all of the missing concepts. This Mando’a was smooth, it allowed for protection and chaos and family and disorder and peace as well. It was beautiful. It was one of those things that he wouldn’t say if pressed, but he couldn’t very well deny it.

Another strange thing was that they had armor pressed on them- not out of some feeling that they had to on the part of the leaders of the enclave- but because anyone searching for them wouldn’t be able to find them under the armor that all of the children there wore. It was a religious thing, or at least that was the vibe that Obi-Wan got. It was an unsure thing whether that was why the people wore their armor nonstop or not. Maybe they just wore it because it felt good. It felt safe and sturdy beyond the way that it was armor- kind of in the sort of way that you feel safe and secure when wearing a good pair of boots- that feeling that you’re more solid and protected from the world in a way you weren’t before. It wasn’t something he’d really gotten to feel in a while. He hadn’t felt it since before Melida/Daan and- he wasn’t going to think about that. He wasn’t going to think about that and he wasn’t going to think about some of the things he’d seen in the aftermath of Death Watch and he wasn’t going to think about how familiar some of the sights were and he wasn’t going to think about how they tore at his soul. He wasn’t going to think about any of that, because if he didn’t think about it then it didn’t exist. The armor helped, is the point. He actually felt safe, less jumpy, less like an ambush was coming.

When they noticed he wasn’t- when he- they noticed how jumpy he was sometimes, the way his eyes tracked them. They didn’t tell him he needed to meditate it away, needed to calm down and will himself to be fine. One of them even asked how they could make him feel safer, speaking slowly in that soft, smooth, gentle dialect of Mando’a that they had. When he said he didn’t know they weren’t mad. He could read sadness in their head tilt, and he couldn’t help but think that it may have been on his behalf.

Satine didn’t understand why he’d grown so comfortable so quickly. He was a Jedi, she pointed out. They were Mandalorians, one of the historic enemies of the Jedi, a people that had allied with the Sith on multiple occasions. He didn’t know what to say to her- how to say that for the first time since before Melida/Daan he actually felt safe. The nightmares were coming less often and the being watched feelings and the looking around every corner and- What was he supposed to say? How can he put into words how he actually feels safe, and not in that way where you just forgot to be afraid? What he said instead is that at least the food was good, giving her an amused head tilt- one of the ones that screamed that he was making a joke. She didn’t get it- she asked him how food could somehow overcome the fear that he should have been feeling. He didn’t know how to tell her that he knew when he should be feeling fear, had felt it curl up deep in his bones before popping out when least convenient. He felt safe, and the thing is, when he didn’t feel safe here, that was okay, too.

People would give him reality checks when he needed them- made sure they all knew not to sneak up on him- to not come up from behind him. When he needed to be left alone he could be, and when he needed to hide away that was alright. The thing is. The thing is that he was safe, and he was surrounded by people who cared. He could feel both of those in his bones, in the ka’ra[2], in his soul. He started getting better, and that was a good thing. It was a hard thing to try and explain to Satine- that he’d won a war a year ago and then six months later was sent into a warzone. He didn’t know how to explain that he was starting to learn that that wasn’t okay- that it was a hard thing to process that he deserved better. He may have known it to some degree intellectually- but there is a difference between intellectual understanding and grasping it emotionally.

The food was also nice. He was really getting to be a fan of tiingilar[3].

The armor and the people and the language and the creed- keeping you and yours safe- not giving the whole of yourself to those who hadn’t earned it- not your name, your face, your past- protecting ade[4]\- providing for the good of the community.

He almost called several of the Mandalorians in the enclave buir[5]. That would, of course, have been somewhat awkward. After all, Obi-Wan was a jetii’ad[6]. The Armorer in the enclave knew that, though, and still kaysh[7] was teaching him how to work beskar[8], to make it into armor and helms and weapons. It was easy, seeing the shape it should go into, natural. He could feel its neutral-null-softly-singing soul in the force. It was soothing, and it felt right. Satine disapproved, but as time had gone on and he had grown more and more comfortable in the enclave, he’d begun to care less. He still couldn’t stay, not really, but with each and every moment he wanted to even more. It was stupid and childish and immature and a betrayal of the Order. He couldn’t betray them again- couldn’t leave again. He couldn’t. The idea of staying in the order almost hurt.

Kaysh called him “ner ad’ika[9].” He responded with “buir.”

Qui-Gon didn’t find them for six months.

Obi-Wan didn’t really want to go. Qui-Gon wasn’t his buir- was hardly a teacher- was an osik’la cabur[10]. In the end, it really wasn’t much of a choice- leaving or not. Of course, it wasn’t quite because he didn’t want to leave- had made bonds and anchors there- had seen Satine even relaxing some, starting to care at least a bit about one of the many subcultures amongst her people- one of the many subcultures her faction had been trying to destroy. In the end it wasn’t much of a choice because his buir took val[11] tools and beat Qui-Gon to a pulp before sending him away. It was educational to watch. It would probably bring trouble later, but his clan would survive. They had so far.

“This is the way,” kaysh said afterwards, after sending the beaten and bloodied form of the abusive shabuir[12] away.

“This is the way.”

[1] The Mandalorian Language

[2] Stars; ancient Mandalorian myth

[3] A spicy Mandalorian curry

[4] children

[5] parent

[6] I’m using this to mean padawan. (lit. Jedi child.)

[7] He/she/they. Just love this the perfect pronoun

[8] Mandalorian iron

[9] My child/my little child. ‘ika is a diminutive suffix that is often used affectionately

[10] Shitty guardian

[11] their

[12] Motherfucker. A severe insult


End file.
